THE CONDITION FOR BEARING FRUIT

Jesus identifies two conditions - which are really one condition - necessary for fruit bearing in John 15:4. "Abide in Me, and I in you." Abiding is necessary for producing fruit. The branch is not capable of producing fruit by itself (αφ εαυτου) "unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me."

Some form of the verb "abide" (μενω) is used 11 times in this chapter. The word means to remain, stay or continue (BAGD, p. 503), and it can have the sense of dwell or live together. For example, the word is used of Mary who stayed or lived with her sister, Elizabeth, for 3 months (Luke 1:56).

Jesus states the first condition as a command, "Abide in Me." It is an aorist active command (μεινατε) indicating action that is undefined in terms of duration. However, the two following uses of abide in this verse are in the present tense indicating that the abiding is to be an ongoing abiding as opposed to an event. We must continue to remain in Christ in order to produce fruit because the power that produces the fruit flows from the vine, Jesus Christ.

The command that we remain in Christ implies that we are already in union with Christ otherwise how could we remain? Since it is a command for us to take action, it also implies that we can stop remaining in Christ.  These 2 implications, taken together, show us that the verse is talking about our communion with Jesus not our union with Jesus. We are never commanded to be in union with Christ, but we are commanded to stay in communion with Christ. The source of life is being in Him. The source of fruitfulness is remaining in Him.

Jesus states the second condition as an addition to the first, "And I in you" (καγω εν υμιν). There are 3 ways to understand the clause (Morris, John, p. 670).  1) Jesus is commanding Himself to remain in them, but this makes little sense.  2) The second command is a continuation of the first one. "Remain in Me and make sure I remain in you." 3) The second condition is actually a promise predicated on the first condition. "Remain in Me and I promise to remain in you." This makes the best sense of the verse (Meyer, John, p. 430). We can only take care of our part in the relationship.  We cannot make Jesus remain in us. He promises to remain in us on the condition that we remain in Him so the two conditions are really one condition. The result of this mutual living together is fruit bearing.

The vine does not block its life flow into the branches, but the branches might block the life flow from the vine.  Jesus does not disconnect from us. We disconnect from Him, and the result is fruitlessness. Personal, persistent and continuous intimacy with Jesus produces fruitfulness because He promises that His life will flow into us as we remain connected to Him. Our continuous communion with Jesus unleashes the power of His spiritual life flowing into us to produce fruit.